Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (Travel Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

Patrick Leigh Fermor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1984 | Series: Travel Library

In Roumeli, the companion volume to Mani, Patrick Leigh Fermor explores Northern Greece. He travels among Sarakatsan shepherds, the monasteries of Meteora and the villages of Krakora, among itinerant pedlars and beggars, and even tracks down at Missolonghi a pair of Byron's slippers. The vivid descriptions of the people, traditions and landscape are imbued with an intimate understanding of Greece and Greek history.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[Mani and Roumeli are] two of the 20th Century's most celebrated travel books -- Independent on Sunday 20030622 "He is in the first flight of writers on Greece." -- The Times 20030622 "A masterpiece softened by warm, human understanding." -- Sunday Telegraph 20030622 "[U]nlike the celebrated travellers of the past he has become part of the country he describes." -- Sunday Times 20030622 'Leigh Fermor is a writer's writer, a man whose prose is frequently and justifiably likened to poetry. He writes like an angel in other words -- and angels don't date' -- Justin Marozzi, Financial Times 20030622 'A Book For! The Greek islands' -- Justin Marozzi, Financial Times 20030622 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Patrick Leigh Fermor now lives in Greece with his wife in a house he designed and built. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140095047
• ISBN-13: 978-0140095043
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,600,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book on Hellas, February 18, 2003

By 

Alekos (Cancun, Quintana Roo Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (Isis (Hardcover Large Print)) (Hardcover)

All of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books are of an unusual beauty, but this is without doubt the most beautiful of all. But the author is not for just anyone. I have a friend who bought Roumeli and got only ten pages into it before deciding she didn't like it. But there are reasons for that. She has a journalism background and she lives in New York. Appreciating Leigh Fermor involves taking the time to savor elevated language and imagery emanating from several sometimes unfamiliar realms of meaning. Sorry, folks, but the dumbing down process stops here.
In the first chapter we have a description of the author's travels in Trace and in particular the area around Alexandroupolis, which, interestingly, is named for the Russian Czar Alexander II and not for Alexander the Great. The focus here is the people he calls The Black Departers, or the Sarakatsans, a mysterious and little-studies nomadic group who some say are descendants of the original Greeks who came into the peninsula.
Then there is a delightful chapter centered on the monasteries of Meteora and the holy but realistic Father Christopher, the abbot of St. Barlaam, who has a few tales to tell about the foreign occupiers and their mindless cruelty and how the monks outsmarted them on a few occasions.
Chapter three deals with the famous difference between Hellenes and Greeks (or Romios) that has been used as an analytic model by many serious writers who take an interest in modern Greece, including Robert D. Kaplan in his Balkan Ghosts. This is the division or polarity existing within every Greek you meet on the streets and it shows the distinct pulls of the Eastern and Western orientations that still abide in the Greek collective consciousness and which give, sometimes, the impression of a split personality. Mention is made of George Soteriades the archeologist who insisted that Romios should be used only in the pejorative sense of a mean, vulgar, and sordid man. But the word has also had its very distinguished defenders.
Also worth noting is the fact that this book contains the very elegant and entertaining essay called Sounds of the Greek World, of which I cannot resist giving a few examples here:

Chios is a cakewalk on a cottage piano. ....Hermoupolis is the filioque. .....The Plaka is a drunken polyphony at four in the morning in praise of retsina and the tune of a music- box perched on a photograph album of faded plum velvet with filigree clasps at five in the afternoon.

Yes, this book is beautiful. Take the time to read and enjoy it.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roumeli, June 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (Penguin Travel Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

Patrick Leigh Fermor's Roumeli gives us a glimpse at many ancient customs of Greece that were still practiced at the time of writing. His book is a must read for any one intrested in Greece